


The Problem With You

by FuwaFuwaMedb



Category: Fate/EXTRA, Fate/Grand Order, Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms
Genre: F/M, non Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 00:20:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 18,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21843730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FuwaFuwaMedb/pseuds/FuwaFuwaMedb
Summary: The world had unraveled, leaving him in a state of incarceration. Unable to hold and unable to control as he desired, he had found himself to a point of complete acceptance, but then the tablet had appeared. The chance to rewrite what fate had built forth for him, the chance to build his own free will and reclaim what his other selves had taken for granted. Redemption, but there was no better feeling than this.
Relationships: Gilgamesh | Archer/Kishinami Hakuno, Gilgamesh | Caster/Kishinami Hakuno, Gilgamesh/Kishinami Hakuno
Comments: 21
Kudos: 122





	1. Destiny in the Hands of the Moon

He hated everyone and everything.

He hated the way the world kept on spiraling further and further into the distance, the way that the gods held their hands over all, ruling over them with a set of personal values that made no life worth living. He hated the way the sun could rise and set at their whim. 

He hated the way that he possessed this power, this superiority that ran so thick through his veins. Only them… the clay being of such brevity, had been able to be his equal, showing him that counterbalance existed. 

He could remember the way the trees had let the light into the world, when the world had been young and promising. He could remember when humanity had held the opportunity to change and become something more than it was. 

Gods, but he could remember everything. 

The memories ran so thickly through his veins, strangling him with the mocking naivety of it all. 

In the end, none of them had free will. 

In the end, none of them had the capability to change or be something more. 

They would go around and around, dragged back into the darkness. Their own pain and suffering, it would drag them further into the depths of the underworld, until they sat before Ereshkigal’s throne and suffered for everything. 

Agony ran so thick through their lives. Struggle and turmoil were the two hands that held their throats, as the eyes of emotional stress and self-doubt peered down into their souls. 

His mouth opened once more, his breathing coming in thick. 

Why? 

Why permit him the strength and the capacity to live in this kind of state? 

He had asked himself this question so long ago. 

The moment that the goddess had stood up, covering her body to his gaze, he had heard his own question echo in his mind. 

He had seen those red eyes look down upon him, the lips curling back. 

The goddess had worn her distaste for him like she had worn her jewelry upon her person. She had begun to replace her headdress back upon her head. She had turned her gaze away from him, slamming her bow down upon his hands. 

Using him as she had, pushing divinity and power into his veins just to try to make him something more, she had become this way in the end. 

She had always been the splinter from the handle of the axe. 

She had always been the hole inside the depths of the bucket. 

She had ruined the mind of the shepherd. She had altered the state of all men who dared to possess her for any length of time. 

Even him… 

Even him. 

Why was he permitted to this life, he had asked himself. 

Why would the universe allow such a mongrel as him to exist in this world. 

Thrown forth from the goddess’ side, he had asked himself this. The answer had come in the balm of his own pains. 

There were no balances for the gods. 

No one challenged the beings that presided over them all. 

When Ishtar had lost her temper and demanded the great Bull of Heaven for her own selfish fit, none had stood in her way. 

When the gods had found that the clay being had been too good of a friend, they had possessed no force stopping them from destroying an innocent inhuman being’s life. 

There was no man or woman that stood before the gods and said no. 

There was no bit of humanity that had use. 

Uselessness was a plague to humanity and the gods. Cowards and charlatans, their traits ran in the blood of all of those that stood before his eyes. 

Gilgamesh wrapped his hand around Ea. 

The power of creation was in his hands. The divinity, both innate and what had been forced upon him, flowed thicker than the widest part of the Euphrates. It was deeper than the depths of the ocean so many leagues away from his home. 

He could see the world around him, see it dare to shine upon his head. 

And how dare it do such a thing. 

Each second that passed, each moment the shadows dared to move around the stone pillars, showing the time of the day, he found his anger rising. 

The gods had overstayed their welcome. 

They’d all failed him. 

Every single one had placed him in this position, sent him into this state of being. They had looked upon him and bore him the illest fate of all. 

And how dare they declare such things upon him. 

His patron goddess was the first to see this anger manifest. 

She was the first to bear witness to the moment her creation had gone too far. The power running thick through his veins could not be recalled. It could not be stolen away. 

Her honeyed lips could bear no words with enough glimmer and value to spare her life. Her sweet visage, to which he had caressed so sweetly, could not bear enough meaning to his soul that he could lower his weapon. 

She tumbled forth. 

Each stair was another of the universe’s counterforce. 

Each stair was another slap to the face of the gods that would fall next. 

Enlil. 

Enki. 

Ninsun. 

Iskur. 

Marduk. 

Ereshkigal. 

An. 

Nanna. 

Utu. 

None would be spared. He would rise forth worse than Tiamat and her demon spawns. He would go forth with all the forces of the universe at his side, a power contriving directly from the roots of the universe. 

The humans never bore witness to him. 

With the raising of his weapon, he allowed the winds of change to form around Ea. He looked upon his world that he had forced so much time of his life to build up, he watched the power swell. 

_Come all you gods,_ he bid. _If you truly love this place and these people, you will come to their aid. You will sense their impending end and you will aid them._

The power blasted through them like a knife to the throat of the livestock. 

Buildings crumbled, faltering as the blow struck their foundations. 

The power vibrated from his every inch. 

The pain… The indescribable pain…

More of the gods and their precious world needed to falter. All of it needed to burn. He moved further into the distance. Blasting world after world away from the gods’ control. He lined the bodies at Ereshkigal’s gates until she would no doubt be faced with the universe at her doorstep. 

Allow them to see the mistakes of the gods. 

That was what he was doing. He was allowing them to bear witness to their faults and their mistakes. 

The moon god stood before him, standing side by side with the sun. 

The moon and the sun, but he was the mountains, casting shadows to block out their light. He stood resolute, allowing his treasury to open and the weapons to be cast forth. 

When the god of fate stood before him, opening his mouth to set about giving a decree, Gilgamesh reached forth. His hands grabbed at the man’s very neck, yanking the jaw from his face. He saw the wagging tongue of the snake who had stolen his friend and companion. 

There was no need for him to possess such a thing, Gilgamesh thought to himself. 

A blade’s single stroke could sing a symphony to what he had done with such a frivolous thing. 

The god of creation made a run for it. He could see the twitching limbs as he stumbled and faltered. He could see the green eyes looking up at him. 

Words could not express anything. 

He was beyond the point of recognizing such things as words and pleas. 

Still, he would not kill the god with the god’s own weapon. He would do the god that favor. He had bore the being a chance at life. He had created that which had held value. 

The limbs were torn asunder. The body of the god, broken into pieces, was thrown into the great forests in the distance, where the wolves and the beasts would claim him for their own. 

And the woman that had committed the worst of the sins? 

The one who had bore him life? 

He could see those red eyes stare deep into the depths of his own. He could see the way she shivered like the mighty Cedar Forest had before he and the clay one had chopped it down. 

And, like the mighty and ancient trees of that forest, he tore her down as well. 

All of the gods. Gone. 

All of the humans. Gone. 

There was no life in this world, not as he went on to go after the beasts and the life in this world. He cast blow after blow into the universe, tearing apart everything that had been the gods’ own creations. 

Nothing to live, nothing to breathe. 

He stood alone, amongst the ashes and the remains of what had been a colorful world filled with life. 

His chest shuddered. 

His eyes scanned this world, with its overcast skies that never rose or set. 

He gazed upon the earth, that never grew fertile or showed any kind of signs of life. 

He had destroyed it all. 

Every last drop of meaning in this world, he had torn it all away until nothing could remain. And now, standing amongst his prize, he could feel no joys or excitement over it. This world gave him no more feeling than the world he had been in before. 

From the moment that goddess had touched him, she had made him as he had made this world. 

She had stolen the very essence of him, the very things that had made him who he was. 

Ishtar had taken the being from his side, the pride of his manhood, the compassion he had held for the people and begrudging respect he had held for the gods. She had stripped away everything, leaving him bare and useless in the world. 

He had become… 

There were no words that could describe what he was now. 

His eyes fell to the snake, the singular sign of life. 

He leaned down, reaching out his hand to the beast. As it slithered up his body, he gripped it tight, bidding it to do what no god or mortal had been capable. 

Give him the peace of mind needed to escape this hellscape he had chosen for himself the moment he had turned and welcomed the goddess of love into his bed. 

Give him the opportunity to cease this form, so that perhaps in another universe much like this one, he could forsake the goddess and be the king he needed to be. 

Let no one look upon this form, this life. 

_No one needed a king such as him._

“Gilgamesh…”

His eyes opened. 

The barren wasteland of his world was gone. The snake he had welcomed as his companion and weapon in this eternity of hell was gone for the moment. 

Before his eyes, lay her. 

The Moon Cell survivor, the being of which held no humanity yet, at the same time, bore such great lengths of humanity; Hakuno stood before him, her slim frame was hugged by the golden robes that could only come from his other selves. 

Once more, she was coming too close to him. 

Once more, her hand was caressing his cheek. 

“Hakuno.” 

The name escaped his lips so softly. His eyes closed as he found her moving close to him, her lips pressing to his face. 

“Do you need anything, Gil?” 

He needed so many things. 

The feel of her lips upon him again, worshipping him and showing him what the meaning of hope was; her hands running along his body, finding no faults or imperfections with him. He wanted to hear her say the words he heard her murmur so willingly to his other selves. 

His body strained against the chains a bit more, his face pressed to her hands a little more. 

To think he had become so incredibly tamed by an inhuman woman such as this. 

Her hand was brushing his shoulder length blond hair from his face. Her eyes were scanning over his face, taking her time about the process. 

It was so tiring to feel used. 

It was so incredibly exhausting to feel this nothingness, this empty part of himself. How was it that this woman set sparks to his life? How did she bring fire to where his life hid in the darkness? 

His eyes opened once more, his body still straining against the chains that held him back. 

Those dark eyes were looking deep into his. 

Her lips pressed to his. 

She always did this. Again and again, she would press those celestial lips to his own, creating this eruption within his soul. She made him shudder against his bindings, his mouth meeting her every kiss. Just a little bit more, he would plead with himself. Just hang on a little longer. 

“You are someone truly amazing,” she would murmur to him. 

He didn’t understand how such words could escape her lips. 

Ereshkigal herself could not have come across a more powerful method of torture for him. To have the very woman he had broken the legs of, the very woman he had tore down emotionally again and again, forcing to live in a state of chaos with her body growing life-

But she spoke those words in this world. 

She said those words to him and she held such authority in her voice as she stated them. 

There was no doubt that she meant them with all of her very essence. 

He was something truly amazing. 

He was someone. 

Not a thing. Not a creation or an abomination. 

She gave his being meaning. 

She made it sound as though he could become something like his caster or archer selves. She made it sound like he could possibly walk forth from this room. 

Those gentle hands brushed back his hair again. 

Her sweet face smiled to him, lacking any hint at pity or deception. 

She gave her heart. 

_The fool_

He’d bit at the hand that caressed him. He’d said things. He couldn’t even remember those things at this point. 

Fatigue had worn away the ire and the words themselves. 

Now there was just the need to simply be in these arms that stroked his face and cleaned his body. There was just the need to be able to have the chance at leaving this room. 

Somehow. 

Hakuno spoke to him in that room though. 

Her sugared words spoke of the happenstances within this place, this Chaldea. She spoke of jokes and games that had been done while he had hung in this room. She spoke about the gifts and the holidays that these people celebrated as though they had meaning. 

With those lips of hers, she spoke to the powers and the strengths of the other people in this place. She made them sound as though they were worthwhile, as though they had any power whatsoever. 

For so many days, he found himself hanging still, listening to her say all of these strange things to him. 

His eyes had traced her every inch. 

His mind had replayed the way the lights reflected of her face and her body. The gleam to her hair was something he wanted to take immense pleasure in. 

After that short time with Ishtar… 

After imagining such-

He couldn’t bring himself to think about before. 

Just replace the whole torture of before, he commanded to his mind. Replace the pain. He needed to tear it from his body, fill it with the touches and the words of this woman before him. 

His moon girl. 

His ethereal being of divine and strength beyond all that he could have ever dreamed. 

She was what his mind had screamed for the moment that his friend had been gone from his side. She was what his soul had clawed and screeched into the darkness to find. 

Before only her, he would allow himself to be this way. 

When her hand reached, it was his face that she would touch. 

When her face fell, it was his own that lowered after it, tilting his face to get her to look to him instead of to the unworthy room he had been left in. 

The moment the woman had brought in the tablet, he had seen opportunity. 

She had placed it amongst other tablets, reading through them slowly, with struggles here and there at perfecting her knowledge of his language. 

She often came here to stay with him, reading away until one of his other selves would pull her away. They would glare to one another as the brunette would get up and bid him farewell for now. 

Today…

Today he had the opportunity of a lifetime. 

To think the fools would leave such a powerful tool in the hands of the naïve woman. 

The tablet was something that had been missing for so long, a tablet he had heard of only due to his slaughtering spree. 

The god of fate had called forth for his tablet, needing a power that would rival the power of divinity at his level. He had been unable to attain his tablet and, for him, he had held no interest in possessing such a thing. 

What use was a tablet from a god? 

Ah, but the script at the top of the tablet forewarned of its use. The gods were so careful about their tools and their weapons. 

A tablet that could change the tides of fate. 

But what to make Hakuno engrave upon the tablet? 

To wish Ishtar from his person would not due. It was too much for even the greatest of tools. To undo that moment may undo his opportunity to reach Hakuno. 

“Hakuno.” 

The woman turned her gaze to him, pausing from reading aloud a method of cooking a fine bird dish from his homelands. 

“The blank tablet,” he bid, praying she would not see the writing along the side of the seemingly empty tablet. “You should attempt to write how you see my future.” 

“Your future?” 

He nodded. 

Why leave the decision of his future to his own mind to weave? The gods themselves had attempted and failed him. 

Hakuno though, brilliantly minded, determined to go to any lengths for her own goals; she could come up with something worthy of him experiencing. 

“I don’t think that would be a great idea.” 

She would not be so simple to persuade, it seemed. 

“Why not?” he pressed. 

She turned that sweet gaze to him though, clear cut as ever with her emotions. 

He found her shaking her head. 

“You should write your own destiny.” 

“I want out of these chains.” 

She wrote it down, pausing to raise a brow at him. “And?” 

And what? 

He thought to himself a moment, carefully considering his options. 

“I would like to be separated from the snake that met me upon my ending of the world.” 

Her script was not perfect, but it was a start. 

He could feel pain rippling through his being. He could feel the looseness of his bindings. With the simplest of motions, he could pull his arms free and reach forth. Finally, he could take the liberty of once more holding his woman in his arms. 

“That’s all?” 

Gilgamesh leaned back against his wall, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. 

“What would you have me do?” he bid. 

“Control your berserker tendencies to a point where you could leave this room and not go on a killing spree.” 

His eyes opened to look over at her, nodding towards the tablet. 

She raised a brow his way. 

“Write it,” he demanded. 

She scribbled it down, hearing one of the two other Gilgamesh calling for her. 

“Our time comes to an end again, Hakuno,” Berserker murmured. 

“I will come back tomorrow. Maybe I can get another tablet or some paper instead and we can talk about things we can do to help you be able to do these goals.” 

She seemed excited at the prospect of him wanting to change. She made it seem as though these goals she’d inscribed upon the great tablet were nothing more than meager goals of the simple farmer. 

Her lips pressed to his one last time and he nearly freed his hands to hold her once more. 

He found her leaving him and he shook his head, listening to the door close. 

His arms were pulled from their shackles. 

His hands rubbed at his wrists, returning blood that had long since abandoned that part of his body. Trying to stand turned into something of a challenge, considering he had spent so long upon the ground. It had been eternity since he had been placed in this soul sucking room. 

His hair was slicked back. 

His hands reached forth, grasping the doorknob he had only dreamed of holding in his hands. 

He peered around the doorway, taking in the darkened world outside. 

Nighttime? 

Had Hakuno spent her afternoons with him? 

How long had he been in this place, that he could not tell the time of the day in the windowless room? 

_It didn’t matter._

No, not in the end. 

Hakuno had given him the freedom he needed from those chains and bindings that had held him down. She had given him the chance to possess humanity in his being. 

He would take back the woman he had found and decided to claim as his own. 

This time, he would not hold the same urges that had spurred his body to destroy the world like he had held last time. 

He would not be so easily tempted to cast aside humanity for his own gains. 

Yes, let her rest for now though. 

He would prepare himself for the plan building itself within the confines of his own mind. 

She would be his soon. Very soon. 

_Rest, my Moon Cell Girl._ he bid her. 

His moon goddess would be his soon. 


	2. The Peace of Death and Destruction

They’d repaired everything.

Each hallway that he had blown apart with flame and Ea, each room that he had stormed and taken down the servants within; it was all repaired and without flaw. Anyone that would have visited now would have merely thought that the place had never seen tragedy. 

A part of him seemed to wait, like a feline prepared to pounce. 

When would the adrenaline begin to kick in? 

When would the memories of what Ishtar had done to him, twisting his emotions and his sense of affection for others at the crook of her fingers, begin to make itself a burden on his broken soul? Each step he took was one step closer to that madness. 

Each meter he went was one that sent him closer to remembering the look in those eyes, the feel of those hands on his body and her words casting their fate upon him. The great weaver of love and war, the one who could ruin anyone she touched if she so chose; she had done a great deal to him. She had ensured that he would never be able to touch another or rule with any kind of sanity. She’d forced him to yearn. 

“Gilgamesh!” 

Berserker felt himself pause at the sight of the woman at the end of the hallway. 

Her blonde hair hung in its usual twin tails. Her gentle face and spirit, much like the does she kept near her when she appeared, seemed almost too sensitive to the mere inkling of chaos and anger. Ereshkigal smiled in that meek way of hers, brushing at bit of her hair with her hands. 

“I thought you had already gone to bed with the others.” 

She must have had him confused without the scales on him anymore. He was thankful that the low lighting in his prison had kept Hakuno from realizing the truth. 

“I needed to check something,” he told her simply. 

“You mean the twins?” 

Her eyes simply gleamed, her smile growing broader as she asked if that was his mission this late in the evening. The goddess of the afterlife seemed enamored by the prospect. 

The twins…

How long had it been since he had seen the tiny beings? 

Hakuno never brought them with her. The other versions of himself were careful, having only brought the two once for him to see. 

He could still remember the frail beings, his son’s carefully bundled body in the mess of fabrics as Archer had handed the boy to him for holding. Those red eyes had looked up at him quietly, holding within him enough power to level all of this world and the next. 

They no doubt had their mother’s strength, amplified a thousand times over by being of noble birth and from his lines. 

“Archer?” 

“You wish to see them?” 

The goddess perked up, jumping a little as he countered her question. 

“D-do you mind? I know you don’t care for goddesses near them, but I will be careful not to touch them at all and I’ll make sure to wash my hands and everything.” Her eyes and her face pleaded for her, the words mere extra reassurances to get him to agree. 

“A few minutes only,” he told her, earning a leap in the air from the young goddess. The little fool saw nothing of the truth in him, brazenly grasping his arm and yanking him through the halls. 

“I love them! They’re such wonderful humans! And they’re so warm, King Gilgamesh. You are very lucky that you and Hakuno created such wonderful beings. Thank you.” She flashed a smile like that of her sister in his direction. Only her eyes kept it from being the same. 

Unlike Ishtar, her eyes matched with the joy she expressed with her smile. 

“I have been telling Master about how cute the twins are. I hope when they get old enough, one of them decides they want to be a lancer. Enkidu and I could teach them how to fight properly. I know lancers aren’t considered the strongest fighters, but Enkidu’s power has always rivaled yours and being able to give back to Uruk, after all that’s happened…” 

She laughed a little, shaking her head. 

“I’m sorry. I’m excited.” 

Berserker opted not to speak, rolling his eyes at the girl’s exuberance. 

The room to the twins was closed. The inside was thankfully empty of other servants. 

_There had been no telling what kind of war could have come from one of his other selves being in this room._

Or the clay being, for that matter. 

“There they are!” 

Ereshkigal seemed to dance forward on the balls of her feet, her cloak fluttering out behind her as she rushed to the cradle. Her arms pulled a slumbering toddler from the small bed. 

“Hello little Enki,” she cooed. “You look so much like your father.” 

They had grown. 

Seeing the goddess hold the small boy up, it was astonishing how much the child had seemed to grow. He sported chubby limbs and face, his body wrapped in a rich red fabric. As the goddess cooed away, he could see the young boy curl his fists around her hair, pulling on it slightly only to earn a bigger gush of affection from the young goddess. 

They didn’t even seem like the tiny newborns he had held. 

Moving forward, Gilgamesh glanced into the crib, finding the other child awakening. Her red eyes looked up blearily to him, her arms waving softly. 

“…You should hold her.” 

His attention flickered to the goddess nearby, watching her flinch. 

“If you want! I mean- I don’t really know your children at all! It’s just that Gula seems so eager to be loved by you. I thought that you may want to hold her…” The goddess hugged his son a little more, “or I could hold her while you hold Enki.” 

Could he hold the child without killing her? 

Already, he was risking their lives by being in this room and standing next to a Sumerian goddess. The thoughts of Ishtar were dancing in the outskirts of his mind, taunting him with the threat of visiting and wreaking havoc on his sanity once again. 

“Gilgamesh?” 

His arms were moving. 

He could only watch as he moved forth with a sense of confidence in this newfound sanity in his person. His arms wrapped around the child’s waist, pulling her from the safety of her crib and up into his arms. The little one’s head pressed to his chest, her hand going to her mouth to stick her fingers in. 

Strangely enough, he was standing in his childrens’ room, holding one of his two children while standing next to the goddess of death. Death and destruction in human form were holding onto two innocent and pure souls, ripe with a lifetime’s worth of opportunities and hope to give to the world. 

“She’s so small still,” Ereshkigal cooed, moving a bit closer. “Look at her. You’re going to be as loving and sweet as your mother.” 

“She is already as sweet as her mother,” he told the woman. 

Ereshkigal nodded, looking around a moment before motioning to the sitting area in the corner. A blanket had been left lying on the floor, covered in odd blocks and colored plush toys. There were a few trinkets that looked like something he would see in Uruk, but it had been a long time. 

At the goddess’ suggestion, he followed her to the little area, leaning against one of the couches and letting the small girl in his arms have the opportunity to play. 

His son was eager to move, crawling forth with his eyes set on the toys. 

His daughter? 

He could not seem to interest her in anything. 

Her eyes simply opened as he repositioned her, regarding the land of entertainment and splendor before closing once more. That tiny, cherub face nuzzled against him further, a small contented sigh leaving her lips before she dozed straight to sleep. 

“She’s so tired,” the goddess of death cooed. 

“My son,” he reminded her. 

“I know! I know! Little Enki,” she cooed to the boy, moving carefully to where the boy had crawled. 

The woman was being smart about this, knowing that any arguments would mean he would have the opportunity to toss her out of the room and make her return to her own chambers. 

Yet, despite having told her that she would have nothing more than a few moments with the twins, he could not seem to help himself with allowing her a moment more. The defiled and the wicked were not permitted to walk the same path as the so called heroes and saviors. While his woman and his other selves held the opportunity to hold these two beacons of life at any time, partaking in moments that would be forever engraved into their souls; he and Ereshkigal were permitted nothing of the sort. 

They could only watch, waiting to be involved in the next sets of chaos and agony. 

“You can stack blocks!” Ereshkigal exclaimed as quietly as she could while being excited. She pressed her lips to the boy’s hair, her face glowing from the force of her smile. “What a brilliant boy! You must be so much like your father! You’ll build so many great things when you get older!” 

Ah, but what did that mean for the daughter that slumbered in his arms. 

Berserker ran a hand through the young girl’s wispy hair, watching those eyes open once more to look to him. Her hand was once more in her mouth as she watched him. She pulled it out only to wipe it on his arm and replace it to her mouth once more. 

His daughter slobbered. 

His son built block towers. 

“Ah!” 

Gilgamesh glanced to the goddess, seeing those eyes watering. 

“What is it?” he asked. 

“It’s just… I hadn’t seen either of them give kisses before.” 

“Kisses?” 

The woman nodded. “Hakuno was teaching Gula. She told me that when the girl is happy, she takes her hands that she sucks on and slaps them on the person… It’s so cute, my king.” 

The goddess abandoned his prodigal son, cooing to Gula only to be stared at. 

As the hand was pulled from her mouth, Gilgamesh found his daughter tearing the heart of the goddess straight from her chest, opting to press her hand to him rather than her. 

_You are too much like your mother, tiny Moon cub._

“Gula,” Ereshkigal tried again, her happiness wilting at the rejection. 

“Ereshkigal, this is enough. They need to rest.” 

The goddess flinched a little, nodding sadly. 

He declined her offers to help move the two back, telling her that he would spend a few more minutes with them himself. The woman’s happiness seemed so tied to being able to enjoy this time with the two younglings, her bittersweet smile being flashed to them before she headed out the door. 

Like that, she was gone. 

Just like that, he was alone. 

Moving the twins involved depriving the boy of his time to build and create. Moving the twins involved depriving the girl of being able to rest against him. He found himself loathing the very idea of deprivation. 

Instead, he merely settled in, letting time pass in this room. 

The boy was too young to spend long with his games and toys. That developing mind of his simply puttered out, with him soon returning to him. The boy crawled atop his sister, hugging her lightly and leaning against his chest as well. 

Berserker leaned in, resting his head just lightly upon both of theirs. 

These were his. 

They belonged to him. They embodied him. The former him. 

When the world had been so much younger and so much more filled with vitality and life, spirits like the two that he held had been more prevalent. Children and mothers such as the ones that he had claimed for himself were more commonplace. Friends like Enkidu could be found out in the universe. 

Well, perhaps not. 

Perhaps he was overstating their commonality. 

If they had been more common, then he would have not wished for them so heavily. He wouldn’t find himself holding the two in his arms as though they held meaning and value. 

Rather than that, he would have never come here to this room to begin with. 

Perhaps this would be his goal. 

Gilgamesh moved to stand, holding both of the children to his chest as he returned them to their crib. He tucked the blanket in the crib around them both, sticking the lion plush that had been in their bed closer. The two cuddled against it, their eyes opening for only a moment to see what they were doing. 

His lips pressed to their foreheads. 

The burden, the great stone in his chest, seemed to have gained weight as he moved to the door and glanced back at the room. 

The tablet of Enki had outdone itself. 

Greatly, effectively, it had taken the urges and the impulses that Ishtar had created and tampered them down to a gentle ember, dying in the depths of his spirit. While he could still feel the heat of that anger, the frigid chill of peace seemed to have consumed him. 

Hakuno would not come to him so easily. 

So long as she had these two tiny sparks of life to care for, she would not dare come to him. He didn’t blame her either. 

Perhaps…

His thoughts traveled at the pace of his feet, his path now focused on returning to his prison. 

Going anywhere was a fool’s errand. 

The plan to look through Chaldea for weaknesses that he had originally planned as he had left his room was wrought with the problem of no longer holding all of the power he had possessed before with his serpents. 

He had Ea and his other capabilities, but losing skills meant he would need to rethink strategy. 

Along with that, knowing the two little ones were now real and capable of independence in thinking put a further damper on his desire to destroy this place. 

The tablet though. 

Oh, but that tablet possessed the power to rewrite anything to his own aims. 

Destroying himself would do no benefit to him. 

Destroying the goddess Ishtar outright would give no personal satisfaction either. 

There were other ways though. 

His dimly lit room welcomed him back, seeming having grown only smaller as he had been away. The chains that hung on the far wall seemed to glint in the darkness, illuminated by a singular low light overhead and the hallway lights. 

All of the tablets and paper that Hakuno had been looking through and writing upon were still there, lingering on the floor near where he had been kept. 

He lifted the chisel from the floor, taking the great tablet into hand and surveying the slab quietly. His eyes roamed over the remaining clean part of the tablet, cursing that Hakuno had opted to write so large. 

His mind mulled over his life. 

His fingers marveled at the remaining smooth surface, just begging for him to alter more of what had been, what was taking place, and what was to be. To undo what had occurred with his woman summoning him would be unseemly. To that, he was positive. Her strength and her perseverance were things to retain, despite the negative aspects to how those gains had been acquired. 

But he merely wanted her as she was now. 

It did not mean that he could not simply… reposition her within space and time. 

The chisel moved slowly across the blank canvas of a stone, etching his decree. 

_Hakuno Kishinami, the conqueror of King Gilgamesh the Berserker and master of Caster and Archer Gilgamesh, will be pulled into the Uruk of Berserker’s origins, arriving the moment that the goddess Ishtar removes her hands from the body of King Gilgamesh the Berserker. Within Hakuno, she will possess the power to raise Enkidu’s soul back from wherever it went after their untimely death._

He looked at the writing a moment before amending one last thing. 

_No god or goddess nor being of divine power, will be able to kill her._

He waited a few moments, feeling the change come into effect. There was the faintest trace of mana, the lightest touch of divine power that trickled through the universe. 

With that moment, he took the tablet and opened his gates, carefully pulling the most mundane looking fabric from his gates and wrapping the tablet up carefully. 

Let no Gilgamesh ever find this tablet again. 

Destiny could, once more, lie in the hands of the worthless gods and their biased intentions. 


	3. The Goddess Hathor

The world was like the materials of the scarf she was knitting.

There was a clear path, a direction that the thread would begin to weave itself together from. She could watch as it created loop after loop, going back and forth. She could watch how some parts of the woven thread would be tighter than others, other parts showing where she’d missed a loop. The smallest of gaps would exist, showing a missed detail, but it wouldn’t take away from what the thread would become. 

Her life… 

It had certainly had a few of those gaps here and there. The Moon Cell had taken the time to build her into fruition, casting her off in an immense war for its own personal viewing. Her servants, all of them in their own way, had begun the path of her knitted together life. 

Some had her go through great trial and tribulation. 

Others were no more than a loose encounter, an acquaintanceship that she could acknowledge and appreciate before continuing her path. 

Over and over, continuing forth, she had assembled something. What that something was, she thought to herself as she sat in bed next to the two kings slumbering soundly away at her sides, was a complete and utter mystery. 

…Of course, she might just be spending too much time around the twins and Hans. 

Hans’ stories were probably just making her philosophical. Between him and Scheherazade, she’d found herself listening to a lot of longwinded and allusion-riddled tales. She’d almost thought to get away from their tales by asking Nursery Rhyme to try telling a tale to Enki and Gula, but…

Well, that hadn’t really worked either. 

_Who would have thought that Nursery would be so attuned to the conscience and the meaning of life._

Why was there not a single servant that was known for stories that couldn’t just tell a cute story about princes and princesses around this place? 

Then again, she’d tried to have Mash tell a story and ended up with the Knights of the Round Table invading. 

Maybe princes and princesses weren’t suitable material either. 

She shook her head a little, taking a moment to pinch the bridge of her nose as she tried to think. 

It must be that she’d spent too long with Berserker Gilgamesh again. Lately, it seemed like all she could do was spend a few hours each day at his side. The more that she saw Archer and Caster interacting with others, the more she saw them enjoying themselves and living their lives to the fullest, the more her mind seemed to drift to the man chained in that dark room. 

Time, it seemed, had made some of that pain feel almost exaggerated. 

He was terrible. 

There was no doubt about that. 

She could remember him slamming his foot down on her leg to snap it. She could remember when he had killed the god of the moon and had rampaged through the world. The memories of defending Uruk and becoming close to the lions in Uruk was still fresh in her mind. She’d had to bring a few of the lions to Chaldea to lounge about in Gil’s room because of the whole affair. 

Apparently, lions could become depressed. 

Who knew. 

But Berserker was insane. He had power that was far greater than anyone’s had a right to be. He had lost his moral compass somewhere along his lifespan, opting to trade it in for more power and a bloodthirst that made vampires look tame. 

This was fact. She knew this fully. 

Hakuno paused again from her knitting, rubbing at her fingers a little from knitting too tightly with her needles. 

She knew Berserker couldn’t be trusted and she knew that he was without moral codes or ethics, but today had been different…

Same position in the room, same basic attitude when she took care of some of the clean up and feeding him, but…

Why goals? 

It had been strange for him to ask about goals to attain. 

It was stranger yet that he had wanted them written down. 

She wasn’t going to naively think that he was just going to change at the snap of her fingers. Life wasn’t that neat and, honestly, she’d be a bit disappointed if that was the case. It would have felt too much like Nero suddenly being a peasant or Tamamo never wanting a husband but instead wanting to be a farmer. 

It’d be too bizarre to believe. 

Any romanticism in the idea of him changing was weird too. 

He wasn’t going to change if she clung to his waist and said she loved him. No amount of caresses or words of affection were going to change how his personality was. If anything, it would only feed his ego and worsen the situation. 

“Hakuno?” 

Hakuno glanced to her side, noting Caster’s stirring. 

“I’ll be going to sleep in a few minutes,” she told him, watching those red eyes gaze blearily her way. His hands slid up her arms, pulling her down to his side a little so he could press his lips to her own. 

“You are a liar, Hakuno,” the man murmured. 

“I’m knitting.” 

A small, soft laugh left his lips as he pulled back. She could see him glancing to the golden yarn she was weaving together into a scarf for him. 

Although a sweater was also immensely needed for the foolish man. 

“If you’re knitting,” he drawled, “then I have no doubt that you’ll be sleeping soon enough. You seem to suffer bouts of fatigue while working with those needles of yours. Rest against my side when you tire properly.” 

She would rest soon enough. 

Archer stirred the moment it seemed that Caster had fallen asleep, but Hakuno merely brushed a hand through his hair and held up her work. 

“So devoted to me,” Archer purred. He rolled onto his side, scooting closer to her. “…You are a romantic handmaiden and fool, Hakuno Kishinami.” 

What else was there to do in response to that then give him a bemused look and resume her work. 

Her golden thread carried on, loop after loop. 

Her mind returned to her previous train of thought. 

She still didn’t understand Berserker. 

No matter how much time she had spent with him, asking questions and taking down notes of what he would give, most of which was bloody and gory details of warfare; she didn’t understand how he had come around to the idea of goals. 

She didn’t really understand why he suddenly was interested in change. 

It simply didn’t make sense. 

Another servant would almost make sense, but that would be feeding into an almost romanticized view again and that wasn’t the case. His gaze didn’t seem to be any different than before. He still twitched when she stood up, like he was going to leap forward and grab her to keep her there. He still pressed his face to hers when she moved in close to help clean his person up. 

What was he thinking…

The baby monitors nearby turned on, the sound of Ereshkigal’s cooing making her laugh a little. 

Ereshkigal and someone else were visiting the twins? 

It must have been Enkidu. She was asking permissions. 

The being probably had wandered down there to look after everything. They were very attached to playing and getting into messes with the twins. 

_It’s time for bed._

Hakuno set the knitting aside, tossing it onto Caster’s nightstand since Archer’s had his game systems and empty wine glasses covering the surface. 

A moment of debate and then Hakuno curled up against Caster, pulling Archer by the arm to snuggle up behind her. 

The sounds of blocks being thrown about and Ereshkigal’s quiet laughter met her ears as she fell asleep. 

The goddess really did deserve to have real family. 

Ishtar wasn’t enough. She didn’t really try to help her sister as much as family should. 

Tomorrow she’d try to get closer to the goddess. 

Yeah, that sounded like a great plan. 

The bed… shifted. 

It felt like the bed was falling from beneath her, the blankets over her lower half flying off into the distance. Her eyes flying open, she could see everything simply bursting. Colors melted to white, the two servants around her vanished like the snap of fingers. 

One second, there was a room she could have navigated in her sleep. The next second, there was nothing. She was feeling wind howl in her ears and her vision turn to nothing. It was like she was falling, but straight into the sunlight. 

The winds were worsening. She could feel the pressure of sound, but she could no more move than she could evade the headache inducing noise. If there were tears on her face, she never would have felt them. All of her sense of feel vanished with the world around them. 

Downwards… or perhaps upwards…

She had to be going in some direction. There was too much noise and wind to be staying in one place. 

_Make it stop._

The pressure of sound was no accompanied by a new feeling. An ache throughout her entire being was starting. It burned through her veins, awakening all her mana circuits or maybe just slicing open all of her actual veins. She couldn’t tell what it was. 

She didn’t want to know what it was. The shock of the sudden burning and pressure to her body was enough to make her know she just wanted to escape. 

_Make it stop!_

“I was warned that there was no man that would satisfy my taste. Whether it was you or Dumuzi, you’re all the same. You’re all useless. God, the clay probably would have been a better lay.” 

Hakuno threw her eyes open as the world came into fruition. The gardens outside Gilgamesh’s bedchambers were falling closer. 

_No!_

Hakuno felt the scream escape her as she realized it wasn’t the gardens that were falling up towards her. She was falling towards them. Her eyes closed immediately, her face scrunching as she waited for the impending impact. 

It was going to be bad! 

Her body seemed to bounce a little as a pair of arms wrapped around her. 

She could feel her heart racing as she opened her eyes, noting the scales and the short golden hair meeting her gaze. 

Gilgamesh had caught her. 

“…What is this, Ish?” 

Hakuno could hear the sound of spluttering, a stomping meeting her ears before she looked over to see- Ishtar had a great figure…

“AVERT YOUR GAZE, YOU PATHETIC HUMAN PIECE OF SCUM!” 

Why was Ishtar in the garden of the Uruk palace? Why was she naked? Why was Gilgamesh calling her…

Realization was a thick medicine, chilling her to the bone. 

“HOW DID YOU END UP HERE?” 

Ishtar was still yelling. 

“WOMAN!” The goddess snapped her fingers, only to earn Gilgamesh pulling her further away from the woman. 

“It would seem someone deemed themselves invited to our time together, Ishtar.” 

The goddess glared at him, her lips thinning as she stood with her hands on her hips. 

She all but mocked his words, wiggling her head back and forth as she faked his voice, before speaking properly. 

“You summon worse and worse company every time I’m near you, snake king.” 

“Excuse me?” 

“Hmm?” Ishtar’s temper smoothed slightly, a light coming to her eyes. “You didn’t notice then? Perhaps your meager mongrel can take over for the very few and pathetic needs of yours enough for you to notice.” 

“Are you still disoriented from making only half my length, Ishtar?” 

Hakuno winced at that. 

Oh boy, she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

“Funny,” the goddess growled before turning away and brushing her hair over her shoulder. “You told me that I turned the shepherd’s boy into a wolf. Well, my slithery king, I’ve turned the glamorous and gorgeous king into a serpent, or, I did as much as I could. Divinity seems to have saved you somewhat.” 

Her eyes drifted to him, her smile blooming forth in a way that would have made the flowers themselves wilt in envy. 

“You truly look to be the half breed mongrel that you are.” 

The arms holding her tightened. A surge of mana met her senses as the man holding her stilled. 

“Is there a problem, king?” 

“Where is Enkidu’s soul?” the man demanded. 

“What for? So you can destroy and sleep with what you may?” Ishtar shrugged her shoulders. “Your body will no longer suit the needs of the people of Uruk. Your people will abandon you now because they will see what I have found. You are nothing but a snake. You may shed your skin and don pretty colors, but your blood is cold and your touch leaves for much to be desired.” 

Hakuno clung to the man as he almost dropped her to lunge forth. Her hands dug into his shoulders, her panicked sound drawing his attention back to her. 

“Ah, abandoning those in your care already, king.” 

Ishtar laughed, shaking her head. 

“The gods all send their regards. Especially Ereshkigal, dear king. You did, after all, kill her husband.” 

A gust of wind picked up a moment before the woman was gone. 

_She needed to leave too._

This was berserker Gilgamesh. There was no doubt about that. Any second now, she would end up finding him spiraling into a rage and unleashing his anger out upon her. She would find him-

Her hands clung to him as the man turned, heading towards his chambers. 

She was dropped onto a seat in the corner of the room. 

“SIDURI!” 

Siduri? 

Hakuno glanced down, groaning internally at her state of being. 

She couldn’t just appear here fully dressed, could she? 

No, just have fate toss her back into a death trap naked. 

_At least I’m even with Ishtar. She’s seen me naked and I’ve seen her naked._

Although, she doubted that the goddess saw that as fair. 

Her attention drifted back to the king, watching him slam his fist against the wall and all but hiss. Those crimson eyes turned her direction, narrowing as he paused. 

Silence filled what sound there had been. 

Once again, he pounded at his chamber door and roared for the entirety of the palace to hear. 

“SIDURI! ATTEND TO YOUR KING!” 

“Gil…” Hakuno moved to stand, but those eyes flew back to her. His lips curled. 

“How did you end up in my palace?” 

That was an excellent question. In fact, that was such a great question she was wondering the very same thing herself. 

Telling him that was not an option. 

She needed to think about this answer. 

Berserker can and would kill her if she failed to answer him correctly. She had no doubt in her mind that Siduri could probably hide a body quite easily for the man as well. 

He clearly didn’t recognize her. 

_Think. Think. Think._

“Did you not hear me?” the man all but murmured, his expression darkening as he stalked ever closer. That gaze was holding her own, keeping her frozen in place on the chair. “I believe I asked you a question. Humans do not get to choose whether or not they answer me. There is only the question in your hands of whether to give me an answer good enough for me to absolve your sin of invading my home or to have me dole out the final moments of your life immediately.” 

“I’m not human.” 

He paused in his skulking towards her, anger seeming to keep at the boil it was at. 

“I um… I am a goddess.” 

Technically. 

Nothing she’d said was a lie, but they weren’t necessarily a full truth either. 

“You feel like a human,” Berserker pointed out. “You show a fear of death, signs of human flaw in your plainness, and you squirm beneath my gaze.” 

Anyone within their right mind would squirm under his gaze. Death wishes weren’t high on her priority list. 

But Berserker moved closer. 

“You bear no resemblance to clay and you lack the refinement for being a goddess.” 

She needed to be smart about this. 

Goddesses. 

She couldn’t claim to be one of the Sumerian goddesses. Too many of them, too many tidbits and facts she didn’t know. 

Greek? 

God, she didn’t know much about them either. 

There was Ozymandias’ gods. 

“I’m the goddess Hathor.” 

The man before her raised a brow. “There is no such goddess.” 

“Not to your people, but mine are well accustomed to me.” 

Was her lie not working? Gilgamesh was leaning over her more, his curiosity trumping out over the deep urge to no doubt squash her like a bug. 

“If you are a goddess of another group of people, then why are you in my palace, Hathor?” 

“I go by Hakuno.” 

He gave her a bored look. 

Hakuno curled up a bit more, keeping herself away from good strangling and squishing distance. “I um… I got in a fight with the god of the moon in my group of gods and I ah… I mean, my escape from them happened to land me here.” 

She was never going to lie again. 

Geez, but she couldn’t lie to save her life. Her life was on the line and she was barely pulling anything out her ass. 

“You stole your group’s control of the moon?” 

She nodded. 

“Clever.” The man stood up, cracking his back a little as he moved to grab his robes nearby. “As the goddess of the moon, checking your abilities would allow you to have the capability of trying to escape throughout the day.” 

His gaze returned to her. 

“But that would not make the fact that you do not bear the visage nor the grandeur of a goddess any less true.” 

“I was born partially human.” 

“Then you are human.” 

She shook her head. “I’m not human.” 

The doors opened before he could argue again, Siduri pausing in the doorway. 

“My king!” 

Her gasp made him pause more than her appearance. Siduri was rushing forward, her hands going to his face in horror. 

“My king! Who did this to you?” 

“So she did change my appearance…”

“We must get rid of these things at once! There are scales coating your forehead and around your eye.” 

They kind of reminded her of a mask, to be quite honest, but Siduri averted her gaze, shaking her head. 

“I will call for the priests and the medics to come at once. We will-“

“I have company, Siduri.” 

He had to say it like that, didn’t he? He made it out like she was intruding on a private moment with the way he gave that statement. 

Siduri’s eyes drifted to her, making her face burn a bit more. 

“Did she…”

“No.” Gilgamesh closed his eyes, snorting. “The hodgepodge goddess probably lacks the capability.” 

“Goddess?” 

A chuckle escaped him now. 

“Wh-what do you need from me, King Gilgamesh?” 

“Fetch our makeshift goddess some attire. While you’re at it, send the messengers into the markets to inquire with the caravans about any goddess by the name of Hathor, calling herself Hakuno.” 

Shit. 

Those eyes seemed to just be gleaming as he met her gaze, the smirk on his lips positively bone chilling. “Should we find that there is no such goddess, then I believe we will have a sacrifice for Ereshkigal this evening.” 

“…I-I will set out at once.” Siduri bowed, backing her way towards the door. Her body trembled greatly as she looked at her king. “I will have the merchants asked about a Hathor… And maybe I will see about some wine and the removal of those ah… inhuman traits?” 

He waved her off, forcing her to leave them alone again. 

“You stopped me from killing a goddess that deserved to die today, goddess Hakuno. Do not think that I will ignore this slight. You owe me a debt you can never repay.” 

This man was going to kill her. 

She should have risked calling herself a Sumerian goddess. 


	4. Siduri and the Eclipse

The medics came after an hour.

An entire hour… sitting in that seat, and that was after Gilgamesh had returned with a blade. She watched him run a stone over it, again and again, the scales on the side of his face glinting here and there as he moved. His eyes would flicker to her if she was watching. They would flicker to her and watch her for a while if she wasn’t. 

Meanwhile, she was trying to pull every small bit of information she remembered about that damn Hathor goddess from memory. 

She could have said Stheno or Euryale, but those two were always up to so many games that she probably would have ended up screwed sideways if someone actually knew them. Along with that, she was pretty sure the Greek gods were younger than the Sumerian. 

Were the Egyptian gods younger too? 

See? This is why lying was a pain in the ass. 

She’d been done with this whole process long ago. They’d resolved the situation in Uruk. They’d settled in Chaldea and she had her two little ones that she doted on endlessly. She trained each and every day with Gilgamesh on how to use a sword and Ereshkigal taught her about her divinity, since she had held some manner of teaching her father when the former moon god had held this power. 

Lying was bad and she’d been done with the wild adventures for a bit. Relaxing and keeping Caster and Archer from killing servants had become a goal for the time being. 

That train of thought was leading her to worse pastures though… They were probably complaining and harassing one another right now. She could almost see Archer throwing a fit and demanding Gudako act immediately. 

Something of his was out of place. 

No, not out of place. Lost. 

She was lost. 

And, with that, she was dealing with this painful presence before her. 

“Do not yank them as one would a hair. It is not a hair to be plucked, you are tugging on my skin,” the man complained, now in the presence of his medics. 

“My king, the scales won’t come off. We have no choice but to use more force.” 

There was more yanking. The king’s face was starting to bleed out as they pulled scale by scale from his face. Watching was making her stomach twist uncomfortably. 

The woman that had come in before, Siduri, bowed lightly to her a moment before holding up a selection of fabrics. 

“Dear goddess, please forgive my behavior earlier. It was rather rude of me to not speak with you as well as my king. I’m hoping to rectify this matter now.” 

“I-It’s fine-“

“I’ve brought you a selection of robes. The few merchants that spoke of you in the kingdom spoke reverently of you. It is not often that another god or goddess makes it to these lands.” 

She tugged lightly at the golden robes, knowing that would probably be the wisest choice at this time to make. 

“Do you have a preference on meals?” The woman asked. 

“I’m um… I’m not quite hungry at the moment.” 

Her stomach had enjoyed a feast via the eyes, one that was currently not sitting well at all. 

“You will become hungry soon enough, I imagine.” The other robes were set down, the woman motioning her to turn before calling for a couple servants. Their hands were quick, their dressing her very careful and particular. It was strange, compared to the last time she’d been stuck in Uruk with Berserker. 

Last time, she’d showed up with a broken leg and had been forced to mindlessly fix it alone and work with Shamhat to save Ishtar. 

“Siduri!” 

The woman working on putting her attire on turned her head, looking over at the king. 

“There is a goddess then?” 

“A cattle goddess,” the woman told him. “She is, according to the merchants, a goddess that birthed countless gods and goddesses to create her realm. The woman has taken to remaining silent though. Her dark hair and her exotic features were noted by the merchants for a while. They informed me that they feared that she battled tirelessly with a few gods when she had her hand in attempting what our goddess Ninkasi does so well.” 

If she could just keep going a bit more, let her know what role she was playing here, that would be wonderful. 

Gilgamesh watched her a moment, those red eyes boring into hers. 

“What does being a goddess of herds have to do with the moon?” 

“The god of the moon was mistreating his power.” 

Gilgamesh shoved at one of the medics as they attempted to dab his face with some foul looking orange fluid they’d poured onto a white cloth. Those red eyes narrowed. “So you dictate them?” 

Shit. 

That was wrong. That was a bad choice. 

“Well?” 

“I don’t dictate them, but… They harmed someone close to the king that we serve. He thought it was justified to steal a life and then do nothing when it caused pain. I decided I couldn’t let that stand.” 

She met that gaze, unwavering. 

“No one should dictate when a person’s time has come… only Ereshkigal.” 

“…Not even your own god of death?” 

Oops. 

She’d meant to say death god, but the phrase hadn’t even registered. She’d said Ereshkigal like she was a Sumerian. 

That was not good. 

“I can’t go back,” Hakuno told him. “What point is there to remember their names when they can’t mean anything to me?” 

“You aren’t homesick?” 

“I have never had a home. I’m a cattle goddess.” 

“Don’t love anyone?” 

“I’ve seen love hurt too many people. I noticed you weren’t good with your goddess of love either. I sensed her and… dropped in.” 

The woman doing her hair dug her nails in a bit, making her wince. 

“Forgive me,” Siduri murmured. “Please be mindful of your words in my king’s presence. You may be a goddess, but my king is the one who rules over this land and all those whom reside within it.” 

She was painfully aware of that fact. 

Which was why she was layering as much damn knowledge of this land and its story as she could into this damn lie. If he doubted that she was a goddess like she said, if he found out about the future and all that nonsense, there was no telling what would happen. 

The medics were dabbing at the king’s face again. 

The room was quiet once again, making her all the more anxious. 

“Hathor-“

“Please, just call me Hakuno.” 

Siduri nodded, bowing lightly as the maids hurried off. “I am Siduri if you have need of me. We have a chamber set up for you next to this one and will ensure that you are cared for while you are here. If you are attacked by the gods of this land, then please rest assured that we will kill you if you dare to put the kingdom and this palace between you and them.” 

Who on earth was Siduri? 

Also, why did the king seem to respond calmly to her? 

Was she a wife? 

She’d heard about the wives, but… She’d never met one of them before. They’d always been tossed out after their use, according to Archer. Caster had informed her that many remarried after him and bore children that way. 

Lots of wives, but never a face. 

Siduri was terrifying. 

She bowed and walked out as though she owned the place too. That was not a feeling that she liked at all in finding. If Ishtar wasn’t already a problem, she now had to deal with Siduri. 

“Goddess.” 

Hakuno jumped a bit, looking over to Gilgamesh. 

“The bleeding,” he told her, gesturing to his face. “Heal this.” 

“You want me to-“

He cut her off with a look. 

The man would pick one of her absolute worst talents to use. She was a terrible healer. When Archer had been injured in his fight with the man, she’d been forced to mostly have Nightingale and the others help him. 

When her babies had been born, she’d bled out because there wasn’t much she could do with healing. 

Code casts and things like that? She could do. 

She was great for support, but healing wasn’t really a strong suit. 

Still, she found herself walking over to him, her robes and adornments jingling softly as she looked into his eyes. 

The faintest trickle of fear rushed through her veins. 

How many times before had she gotten this close to him without bonds on him? How many times had he gone from her being close to doing something absurd like slaughtering people or threatening to kill others? 

How many times before had she walked away from him, free of any bonds whatsoever, and had to treat her own wounds? 

_I’m still afraid of him._

She’d gone every single day to his cell room, gone and sat down next to him. She’d talked and read and done all kinds of things near him…

But she’d known he wouldn’t move from that space. She’d known he was trapped and couldn’t threaten or hurt anyone or her. 

His hand covered hers as she held her hands uselessly at her sides. The king brought it quietly to his cheek, feeling the blood starting to coat her fingers. 

“My king!” 

One of the medics called forth, dragging the king’s attention from her. 

“My king! The skies! They’re turning dark!” 

The man didn’t look for more than a second. The room around them was growing so dim from the lack of sunlight. They could hear the guards and servants shouting in the hallways. 

The patient man, with eyes of a snake, watched her with only a low and dark laugh. 

“You stole from Nanna.” 

“I don’t know what you mean.” 

The king stared at her a moment before closing his eyes. The laugh that escaped him was great, darker than anything she’d heard yet. 

It was making her feel more blood, so she healed him quickly and pulled back. 

It wasn’t right to see a long-haired Gilgamesh pulling back the blond hair from his face and smirking like that. It wasn’t right to see the way he was looking at her right now either. 

“Who is the god of the moon in your little group of divine gods?” 

Shit. 

“…Anubis.” 

That had almost come out as a question. 

“God of death?” 

“Horus.” 

Oh, she was probably doing some kind of heinous crime against humanity with this. There were other names in the gods for Ozymandias. 

“Sun?” 

“Ra.” 

There we go. She knew that one. That one was much easier. 

The man moved forward, wrapping an arm around her waist. He leaned in close and pressed his forehead to hers. 

“Tell me then, little goddess; if I pray to the moon god, will you hear me? I should only be able to be heard by my own people’s gods, after all.” 

“…I wouldn’t be able to hear anything then. That would make no sense.” Hakuno stepped back a step further, grateful that the room was growing too dark to see. Her hands reached out behind her, grabbing at the furniture piece, a table, nearby. 

She needed to get out of this room. 

She could see the flash of red eyes in the dark. The man didn’t even try before he was around her person, wrapping his arm around her waist. 

“You wouldn’t hear me then?” 

“You said it yourself,” she argued. “You aren’t one of my people, so I wouldn’t hear your prayer. It would be impossible.” 

The servants lit torches as she heard the bark of laughter. The madman before her, holding onto her waist and keeping her trapped in this room, was throwing his head back. He laughed until she had no choice but to let the moon stop blocking the sun outside. 

It was too much effort to keep up, even if it had been unintentional to begin with. 

“It’s true.” 

He simply watched her. 

_”I didn’t speak aloud, goddess.”_

Oh, but that wasn’t good. The cold feeling in her veins was thick as the man leaned in, tilting her chin up and watching her carefully. 

“Since we have established that you are not some paltry goddess of far off lands but instead some strange, unnatural being, capable of stealing the powers of a god; let us get to better business.” 

“I need to-“

“You need to listen to me. Right now, I am the only thing standing between you and the gods that you’ve just made painfully aware of the fact that their missing the powers of the nightfall. There will be no end to the attacks on your person. The goddess you so eagerly disrupted by intervening before will be after you now.” 

“Then I will go home.” 

“Fine.” 

He turned, pulling away and heading for the door. 

“While you return home, I have gods to slaughter. I will not be slightest by my own patron goddess. She is going to bend to my will once again and rest in my bed-“

“NO!” 

Hakuno rushed for him, grabbing his hands before he could open the door. 

She didn’t know much about the man, but he’d looked about ready to kill Ishtar before. He’d almost killed her before, back when she’d first met him. 

The woman had been frantic before. She’d been overly cocky this time around. 

Did he fuck Ishtar and lose his humanity that way? 

That put a whole new realm of horror into the man’s tale. Taking the very goddess that cost him to lose Enkidu… killing the people that he had protected and loved as one would a child…

“Let go of me, Hakuno.” 

She looked up at him, shaking her head. 

Ishtar owed her big for this, but she wouldn’t let Gilgamesh kill her and destroy the world. She would keep him from becoming berserker. She just… she needed to think of a plan and then return back to Chaldea. 

“I have no use for a stray intending to go home,” Gilgamesh told her. 

“I’m fine here. Your wife has set me up with a room.” 

He blinked. 

She could feel the room grow incredibly cold a moment before she found him narrowing his eyes on her. 

“Siduri is not my wife, woman. She is my attendant.” 

“You don’t have an attendant. You have advisors.” 

Those brows furrowed once more. His eyes drifted to the servants to get them to flee a moment before he regarded her again. 

The frown was great. 

The wrinkled nose was even more noticeable. 

“Siduri is… the remnant of a harimtu’s mistakes with the former strategist of this land. She has been in and out of this palace her entire life. She is my attendant and she has always been my attendant. Her undying duty to carry on her blood’s devotion to this throne is unending. It will be when death itself claws her throat that she will find freedom from serving me.” 

_But she wasn’t in the other Uruk…_

Caster had never mentioned her. If there was someone that important…

She could almost sigh in aggravation at that thought. If Gilgamesh had someone that important, then, upon their death, he would store their name so deeply in his soul that he would never speak of it again. He’d done it with Enkidu. 

He’d probably done it with Siduri. 

Who killed Siduri? 

Could she save the woman from death here? 

“Where’s Enkidu?” 

She looked to the man excitedly. 

Enkidu would be the one to break up all the madness. They were good at listening, they were great at distracting Gilgamesh, and she could have Enkidu help her get Ishtar to back off. It worked all the time in Chaldea. 

Yes, she needed Enkidu. 

“Can I speak with them for a few minutes?” she asked of him. “They’re really good at understanding situations. Rather than going to Ishtar, let’s go find Enk-

Her body was slammed up against wall. Those red eyes were boring into her own as hands remained wrapped around her neck. 

“You may hold divinity, but do not think that allows you escape from death. Speak that name again to me, forget once more that it is at the hands of those useless creatures that you’ve adopted as family, that have stolen the being from my side.” 

Air was becoming scarce; her hands were clawing at his to allow her to breathe. 

“I will use you to get back at the gods.” 

She stared up at him, watching a few scales on his neck gleam. Already, they were starting to come forth once again. 

“Since you are here, since you have stolen once from the gods and claim the power as your own, then you can handle more.” His smile was the kind that made skin crawl, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end. “I will kill the gods one by one, syphoning their power into you. If you hesitate for a single moment, if you dare to look away from me and seek to escape…”

He squeezed. 

She understood immediately. 

Death. He would kill her. 

“I… want to… protect Uruk…”

“Then abandon the gods and do as I say,” he told her, hands letting her go so she could slump to the floor. 

All she could do was cough, holding her throat gently as the man opened the doors from his room to the hallway. 

“You sleep in my chambers, not in the ones Siduri made you. You will provide me with more power when I ask of it. You do not speak to anyone but Siduri and myself. If you look at another man, you will be the one putting a blade through him. If you beg the gods for help, I will personally find everything of value to you and I will destroy it.” 

He turned to the door a moment before a smirk came to his face. 

“Splash your face before joining me. The fear written across your face is too obvious.” 

She didn’t move for a full minute after he left. 

Everything she’d done in Uruk before, when he’d been in charge? 

She needed to remember all of it before it was too late and stop him. 

_Where are his lions…_


	5. The Hunt For An Ally

She didn’t look to any of the guards as she moved from the room. Her footsteps were graced with a jingling that she couldn’t get to stop. Her chest hurt and her head was aching.

Layers of lies upon lies. 

Where did she even begin to explain or learn to speak? Did she keep with the lie of Hathor, despite the king knowing she was full of shit or did she just keep to honesty, showing to others that she had deceived them and wasted their time? If they knew she had lied once, who knew if she would lie again. They would trust her less. They’d dislike her more, which was dangerous when their king was a half step away from slaughtering them all. 

Berserker was not someone to take lightly. He wasn’t someone that they could pass off as anyone like Archer or Caster. If they failed him or disrespected him, she had no doubt that he would kill them and be done with the matter. 

Her hands had so much memory of bloodshed. Had she not been able to wash it away, the blood would have been everywhere, staining any thought of innocence or politeness that anyone would have ever seen in her. She would have been seen as a monster. 

That was why she needed the lions though. 

When she had been trapped under Berserker’s control, she had found power through the lions. She could transfer her power and mana into them, increasing their strength and urging them into action. They had a good sense for situations, protecting her to no end. 

A whole two floors were checked. 

No cat hair, no cushions lingering from lions lounging on them. She couldn’t find any signs of food being left on platters or any place for the lions in the audience chamber as she peeked in. Others were talking in the room, keeping her from ducking her head in, but that wouldn’t have made any difference for the lions. 

She would have seen a tail swishing or hear one of the beasts yawning. 

“Bring forth the next problem,” the man in the room sitting on the throne had told the room. Gilgamesh was wearing his turban once more, having a veil cover his features from the public eye. 

She could still see a glint though. The scales were growing back. 

Hakuno pulled back, keeping out of view before she continued her search. 

The gardens were empty. 

They had to be somewhere. 

Gilgamesh was all about his lions. He loved the beasts. Even in Chaldea, she’d found that the two would end up bringing those kinds of beasts back from missions if she didn’t go with them and stop them. When they would go to Uruk, their first goal was finding the beasts and wrestling with them. Caster even livened up at the sight of them, rushing forward to play with the beasts. 

They adored their beasts. 

So where were Berserker’s lions? 

Hakuno opened another door, pausing at the empty room. 

The lions would not be lower in the palace. 

She’d always noticed the reactions before she understood why the beasts never traversed lower. The servants would shiver at the sight of the beasts. Their hands and their legs would press together, keeping their persons’ small so the lions wouldn’t bite off a limb. Sometimes, the younger ones would begin to cry, thinking the beasts would divine how they had done something wrong in their lives and seek justice. 

It didn’t take long to realize that the lions had been barred from the depths of the palace. It was why the people had settled and relaxed enough to continue to be able to work. 

Hakuno moved forward, looking at the desk and the library. Her eyes drifted to the windows, watching the sun lower further and further over the horizon. 

Had Berserker killed the lions? 

It wasn’t that shocking to think that Gilgamesh would kill the lions. His rage was unrivaled. If Ishtar had destroyed him to that depth, then it wouldn’t be shocking that he had harmed the very beasts that he loved. He had harmed her as well. He’d harmed and destroyed so much. 

He seemed still in control of himself right now though. 

Not to a great extent. He was still threatening. He was still full of rage and making her want to duck for cover, but… he had seemed much more like the other two Gilgamesh when she’d peeked into the audience chamber earlier. 

Where would the lions be? 

She’d try again. 

Moving back to the doorway, Hakuno returned to the hallways and wandered up all the stairs. She looked at the rooftop, climbing up the side of the palace to glance around before she began her search again. Her attention went to rooms were the maids were making beds and folding sheets. She navigated around soldiers and guards, avoiding their attentions and checking each and every room. 

At the audience chamber, Hakuno waited until the doors opened. 

A peek. 

She waited again for the next set of people to leave. 

A second peek. 

She didn’t see any lions. 

She worked her way through every single room, ignoring the slight pain in her head that said that she was going to be suffering this evening. She wanted to know where the lions were. She needed to know where they’d wandered off too. 

Even if some had left, there were always lions. 

There were always cubs to care for and there were always a couple fighting with one another. She would ask if anyone had seen them, but Gilgamesh had made his intent clear. 

If she wanted lions, she would have to find them on her own. 

“Where are you?” 

Hakuno moved into the dining hall, scooting to the tables and beginning to look underneath the fabric coverings. Chair legs met her gaze. 

They had to be here. 

No Gilgamesh was complete without his lions. The man without his lions was like the man without his Enkidu or without his treasury or without that smug smirk that said that you were going to be taking a trip straight to the depths of hell and there was nothing you could do to stop it. Since that was the case, she should have been seeing the lions somewhere. 

She flipped another fabric covering, bending down to look underneath the table. 

“Here, kitties kitties kitties!” 

She moved to the next table, looking again. 

The lions were perfect support. They were good for the heart. They were calming. They enjoyed cuddling up against a person when a person went to sleep. She’d made Caster and Archer bring their lions to Chaldea after everything had gone south before. 

So…where were the lions? 

Hakuno tried again, calling for the beasts as she looked underneath the main table. She paused at the sight of nothingness. 

“…They’re dead.” 

A chill met her spine as those words rang through the air. Hakuno pulled out from under the table, looking across the hall at the man with his long golden hair and his scaled face and torso. He stood at the door, watching her. It felt like, judging by the way he was leaning against the door, he’d been there for a while. 

“The lions were killed by Ishtar a month ago.” 

“Why?” 

He raised a brow. 

Her voice had wavered, thickening as she tried to get ahold of herself. This place was too different. It felt like everything had been bent out of sorts, like all the wrong decisions had been made and no one had bothered to point out that everything was an inch to the left. 

“Are you crying?” 

“Why did the lions deserve death?” 

“They wanted to stop the goddess from entering my bed.” 

So why had he let her? 

Why? 

Ishtar had never been permitted near his bed before this. He never would have touched her with Enkidu around. It didn’t make sense for him to leap into bed with Ishtar the moment that Enkidu was gone. The beasts had been trying to warn him, to save him from the trouble, but he had- 

He had let-

The choking feeling in her lungs was stopping her from even thinking the sentence. The lions hadn’t deserved the disservice that they’d been dealt. They were precious beasts who did nothing but be loyal and steadfast to their king. They had protected their children whenever she brought them to Uruk. 

Gods, but she needed to get back. 

What would Caster and Archer be doing right now? Were the twins alright with them and them alone? They had been known for getting caught up in fights. Without her there to stop them-

“You weep so easily,” The man murmured, tilting her head up the moment he reached her side. “I had intended to die, woman.” 

“The lions didn’t need to die.” 

“They did not…”

Berserker just continued to stare at her though. He didn’t argue. He didn’t justify his actions. Those red eyes bore into hers, the scales on his face gleaming. 

“You are from Uruk then?” He pulled back, looking around at the room. “My guards and servants have noted your sweep of the palace’s upper floors. Not once did you seem surprised by the rooms. You navigated the halls with a practiced movement.” 

“I am somewhat clairvoyant.” 

“Then what am I thinking?” 

“That I’m a liar.” 

She didn’t even have to look at him or hear him make the accusation to know that he was thinking such a thing. Sure enough, the moment that left her lips, he was laughing. 

“No one can be called goddess or human for killing something as perfect as your lions.” 

The king didn’t even feel right, not when she knew that he had been welcoming that goddess into his bed. She didn’t want to be near him anymore. At least, not for a while. 

“They were majestic beasts, but they were beasts. They can be found again.” 

She stood up, moving away from him because of that line. 

Ishtar had taken too much of him. 

Gilgamesh valued and hoarded. He was an asshole who laughed and fought against you if it amused him. He would begin fights where he was in the wrong and he would somehow always make it out on top. There was never any of this sacrifice for no reason. There was never any of this giving in to a woman’s demands. She tried sometimes. 

She wanted Caster to sleep more. 

Caster would get her hyped up on coffee and then have her staying up with him, ruining her sleeping patterns for being able to remain at his side. 

She wanted Archer to act more maturely. 

Instead, she found herself in a pile of mud, wrestling Enkidu to the point where the two of them were covered in filth and Gilgamesh Archer would walk by with several members of the Chaldean facility, all of them looking over only to see her acting childishly. 

She wanted both of them to clean. 

What she got instead was Ereshkigal and others coming to clean because they wanted to see the babies. She would never trust a pharaoh with a cleaning spray bottle again. 

“Hakuno…”

The man tilted her chin up, making her look up at him. 

“Why do you want the lions?” 

“I wanted them for the same reason that you should be missing them.” She pushed his hand aside, moving to stand up. His hand kept her on her knees, his body leaning in. Gilgamesh’s gaze darkened. 

“Why?” 

“Do you love Ishtar?” 

The man paused. 

He did. There was no reason to have to think about that answer. Any of his other selves would have been denying it immediately. There would have been spitting, roars of outrage and vomit perhaps. Caster was prone to doing that if he were upset enough. It scared her half to death, but it made his 

intentions obvious enough. 

Gilgamesh Berserker, on the other hand, did none of that. 

The man stared at her with eyes wide open, his mouth hanging open as he tried to find words to say what his body had already confessed. 

“I see… So you got rid of them because of her…” 

Again, Hakuno attempted to move. 

Again, she found herself slammed back down, unable to get away. 

The weapons rained down around her. The snakes came forth from the depths of the palace, making her move without thinking. Her heart pounded wildly, her mind went back to rooms of billowing smoke and cells where the bars themselves had turned out to be the bodies of snakes that were giving way for their king. 

Hakuno felt the scream come barreling out of her so fast and so loud that she couldn’t stop herself. Her body pressed to the king’s. Her mind went to just one goal: 

_I want my king._

The man pulled her closer as he glanced around. She could feel her face being pressed against his bare chest, her cheek rubbing against rough scales. 

“They won’t hurt you,” he murmured, covering her mouth with a hand. “Stop screaming.” 

She couldn’t stop shaking. She couldn’t stop the screams that came as she saw those snakes coming closer to them. She wanted to find his weapons and slam them down upon the beasts, ensuring that they would never come back. If any beasts-

As though sensing her thoughts, the Gates of Babylon opened. 

Dozens of weapons came thundering down, slamming into the bodies of the slippery beasts. Condemned to death, they lay strewn about like bodies on a battlefield. She heard the sounds and her heart tore in two, her face pressing to his chest. 

The screams continued until she was weeping. 

“Siduri, fetch the apsu,” she heard the king demand. 

The man tried to move her, tried to make her look up at him, but she refused. It must have become nightfall since the world grew dark around them as she sobbed. 

Guards came, but she didn’t dare move. 

“What happened, my king?” 

“We will go to my chambers.” 

Hakuno dug her nails into his shoulders. She didn’t want to be in his bed. She didn’t want to do anything with him right now. The lions were gone. Her world was gone. This man was truly fallen, truly ruined by thinking someone who would want to snuff the life of the beasts was truly worthy. 

And then to do so again with her…

He could have just had the beasts go away. He could have made them leave like she’d seen him do before. 

Instead, he showed he valued no life. 

The moment her body hit the bed, she shivered, rolling off of the thing as quickly as she could. She treated the bed like fire, glaring at the man who stood over her soon enough. He followed her slowly to the wall, watching her wrinkle her nose at him. 

“Siduri, make them wait outside a moment.” 

The apsu and the woman left, closing the doors. 

“There is only one bed for you,” Gilgamesh murmured. 

“I don’t want it.” 

“We had this discussion.” 

“You spoke. And that was before you showed that you love Ishtar.” 

The man slammed his fist against the wall, bringing rubble to rain lightly over her. Those eyes gleamed as he snarled. 

She met that gaze with a dark look of her own. 

“I could throw you out.” 

“You aren’t one to threaten. You aren’t right.” 

“What would you even know about me?” 

“I know so much more than any fool or mongrel.” 

He raised a brow, but Hakuno shook her head. 

“You don’t care about anything anymore. You were everything. You were warm. You were hope. You made people be better, instead of whatever it is that you think you do now. There was a value to lives and to others, but you don’t treat anything well.” 

“You’re alive and well.” 

“And I’m going to be your syphon for god powers, remember? Because you can’t even realize that the gods are merely fools.” 

“They will kill you when they come for you.” 

Hakuno looked up at that face and shook her head. “…Then I had fun then, didn’t I? I’d rather go down wrestling them and showing their close relationship to humans than be their toy to be torn apart and chewed on.” 

“You think you are so strong then?” 

“Not alone.” 

“Then the lions were to fight against them?” 

She nodded, earning a laugh from the king. 

“You think the beasts could help you against anything? They were domesticated in many respects. They hardly would chew upon a man let alone a god.” 

And yet the gods had feared them. Why was that? 

Hakuno watched him laugh. She felt him lean in closer. 

“You amuse me.” 

“I won’t touch anything that loves that goddess.” 

The man grinned darkly, “That’s fine. I intend to kill them, you know.” 

“Then you’re useless. Who fears gods that cannot even save one life?” 

“They condemned it.” 

Enkidu had been in the summoning pool after that though. The being had-

Wait. 

Hakuno stared at the man above her, her mind racing now. Although she didn’t really have her command spells, if she could change the fate of this place by bringing back…

“I can find them.” 

The king paused over her, his eyes narrowing. 

“If I bring them here,” Hakuno offered, “then I want you to swear to me that you’ll never look at the gods again. Not a single one.” 

“You are part divine.” 

“I don’t care about me, just don’t look at the gods. Don’t slaughter them.” 

Gilgamesh wasn’t moving. In fact, she had half a mind to think he was frozen, cursed to become a statue looming over her when she felt his hand find her neck. 

She watched him, waiting. 

“Swear it.” 

“Swear?” 

“Vow upon your life that you will bring them here. Pledge yourself to me wholly and swear that you will bring the being back to me and I won’t kill you right now.” 

“I just need to rest and have a space for summoning them here.” 

The man threw her onto the bed, letting her bounce as he stormed to the doors. He didn’t push them, he shoved the doors open, roaring to the apsu to tend to her sore throat. 

“Siduri! Have the magicians place a barricade around the entirety of the palace. No one divine gets in or out. Ban the temple maidens from the building. Anyone devoted to that useless goddess should be kicked from the ziggurat immediately.” 

“I’m on it!” 

Gilgamesh looked back over at her. 

“Fail me, woman,” he threatened, “and the very last thing you will fear in this world will be something far worse than a few slithering beasts.” 

She wanted Enkidu here as well. 

Dealing with Berserker in control like this was exhausting. 

“I want to be in the other room,” Hakuno told the apsu, refusing to stay in the king’s bed tonight. 

She needed to be away from any bed that goddess had been in. 


	6. Temperamental King

She could feel a pair of arms around her body as she fell asleep.

Her eyes opened, taking in the sight of the golden hair hanging around his face. She could see the stern set of his face. The red eyes looking down at her all wrong. She imagined being able to reached up, weakly turning that face towards her own and pressing her lips to his cheek.

A part of her could imagine seeing the scales receding, seeing the king she had fallen for looking down at her. A part of her mind, body, and soul wept at the sight of him in this state, knowing that the man was the one she had gone through so much with. So much had happened to him without her here, in this impossible time and place.

“I wish I could kill Ishtar for you,”

She would have, if it meant that the king could be spared from the downfall of Berserker’s life.

She’d seen and heard enough from him about his life.

His mother and the gods and goddess – Gone.

The Uruk people and the rivaling kingdoms – Trampled and destroyed by Enuma Elish and by his own hand.

_They’re dead,_ he had told her in regards to the lions.

She missed Gilgamesh.

The true king, not this farce.

It felt like her chest was being torn apart. Like berserker had already destroyed so much of her.

There was no king who took pleasure in things anymore. No king who smiled and sat above the world anymore, watching the chaos at work and turning the favor of time to his aims. Instead there was just the remains.

Her body was laid down, a hand running through her hair as she closed her eyes again.

“I didn’t say you could close your eyes,” a voice murmured into her ears.

“I want Gilgamesh,” Hakuno heard her own voice murmur.

She wanted Gilgamesh back with her and she wanted him back soon.

The figure over her was pulling away, she could feel the bed shifting, the room cooler than it had been before. However, trying to wake up was too much work. She closed her eyes more, willing her dream to end so she could enjoy some nothingness for a while.

Her eyes opened to Siduri’s face above her.

Her veil was off for once. Her hands wringing out a rag in a nearby washbowl. The furrow in her brows and the thinness of her mouth added time to her features. Her hair was falling out of her braid, making her look worse for wear as she turned her way.

“…You’ve awakened.”

“Siduri-“

“You weren’t waking up in time for the morning meal no matter how much the servants tried to wake you. You must be exhausted from your journey here.” The woman smiled softly, or- she tried to smile for her. The look was too forced.

“What happened while I was asleep?”

“It is nothing that our king cannot handle. For today, you should rest and recover your strength. When you are able to get up properly, we’ll talk more about-“

“Please.” Haknuo stilled her hand as she went to place the cloth on her forehead. “What happened?”

The woman looked towards the door.

She could understand that motion entirely.

She had felt that way before, when she had been with Berserker. The constant threat of him listening, of him being closeby and ready to come in and slaughter anyone who would speak against him. Something had happened, there was no doubt in her mind now. It was the only reason that Siduri would act this way. It had to be.

“I came here to help,” Hakuno murmured, moving carefully against the pillows to sit up a bit more. “Please… In the name of Ninsun, what happened, Siduri?”

“Ninsun is my patron goddess,” the woman confessed.

She knew this well enough.

Gilgamesh would never simply let any woman come near him if they had another god or goddess as their patron.

“Siduri,” Hakuno tried again. “Please. Just tell me what happened.”

The woman looked towards the door again, ushering her to lay back down properly. Her hands went to the rag she had placed upon her forehead, once more dunking it into the water basin on the nightstand.

“The king has decided to place a barrier around the palace and refuse the gods and goddesses entrance into the palace.”

Hakuno nodded.

She’d heard him shouting that last night when she had offered to summon Enkidu here. It made sense. Without the gods and goddesses here, she could safely bring the clay being back without having to worry about any kind of retribution happening. They would be fine.

With Enkidu around, the three of them could relieve Ishtar’s curse on Gilgamesh’s person and save the fate of the universe here.

“Goddess,” Siduri smiled faintly again. “You understand what happens when people stop paying homage to you. You know how your counterparts can be when they are denied strength and respect that they are due. It’s turning into a mess outside. The temples are rising up behind Ishtar. She claims that the king violated and ruined her.”

“She what- Gilgamesh is the one that suffers!”

“And if he says that, people will see the curse and assume that the gods have cursed Uruk to fall. There’s no choice but to have him remain covered and remain in the palace.”

“We can pull the scales again-“

“Your strength held them back for a while,” Gilgamesh’s voice rang out in the room.

Both she and Siduri paused, jumping at the sound of his voice as he entered the room. The golden haired king strolled forward, his face clear and his body covered up to the neck.

“I’ve felt the scales slowly building back up my body from my chest over the past couple of days. Siduri has been plucking them, but the process is unnecessary with you awake.”

He closed the doors behind himself, pulling the robes from his body.

“My king-“

“Stay, Siduri,” Gilgamesh demanded. “You are treating Hakuno, are you not?”

The woman settled back on the edge of the bed, her face directed towards her and the wall. She didn’t dare do so much as breathe out of turn as the king came over to their side and moved to sit on the bed.

“How are you feeling,” Siduri murmured softly.

It took a moment to realize she was talking to her.

At her question, Hakuno smiled a little.

“I’m just a little tired. I um… I’m not sure why I’m in the king’s room. The apsu helped me move-“

“I told you there was only one bed for you here,” Gilgamesh stated loudly, making Siduri wince.

“And I said that I didn’t want to be in a bed that you shared with her,” Hakuno pointed out. “You had no permission to bring me back in here.”

“I told you what was going to happen. There’s no wants or opinions in that plan.” He moved closer, pulling one of her hands up and pressing it to his chest. “You need to do the magic that you did before in healing me. The people are expecting me to show up before them.”

“Magic? What are you talking about?”

“Siduri, move aside.”

Siduri moved immediately, standing up and bowing low.

“She’s been tended to well enough, my king. She’s simply tired and needs rest,” the woman tried to tell him, but Gilgamesh held her in place, stopping her departure.

“Hakuno.”

Gilgamesh’s eyes went to her.

“Heal back what you can.”

“I don’t know how-“

“You did it before, when I was carrying you back into this room.” His hand holding Siduri tightened, his gaze going to her. “What were you both discussing?”

“Nothing important.”

He closed his eyes at that, that gaze darkening as he looked to his attendant once more. He shifted, his hand letting go of her own hand as he focused in on the woman nearby.

“You’ve betrayed me,” Gilgamesh breathed.

“N-no, my king. She asked what was going on and I was explaining the situation with the gods and-“

Gilgamesh moved to stand. His hands balling to fists as Hakuno reached out.

Her hand wrapped around his arm, stopping him from getting too close to the man.

_A hand moved into her hair, moving softly through it. The strange scales extending down his left arm could be felt against her skin, cold enough that she almost found herself shivering. His gaze softened a moment. It- He, she corrected herself, almost looked like the others. He almost looked normal.  
  
A leg slammed into hers, knocking her down. She found herself falling against him, crying out only to stop herself. He held her in place there, kneeling before him.  
  
“The one similar to me thinks you important enough for a bath,” he purred. “You lie to me out of weakness. You work as though you hold familiarity with my holdings.”_

Hakuno felt her blood freeze at the memories of before.

This wasn’t her Gilgamesh. She needed to remember that. She needed to remember this man was capable of-

His hand swung forward, stopping just short of Siduri’s face.

“I am not without morals,” the man murmured, glancing over to her. Those red eyes stared into her own. “Whatever this curse is that Ishtar has performed upon me, you rescind the physical ailment.”

His hand lowered, bringing Siduri to her knees.

“Siduri,” Gilgamesh didn’t move his gaze away from her, ignoring the woman’s reaction entirely. “Tend to preparing the audience chamber. We will open it in a few minutes.”

“O-of course, my king.” The woman closed her eyes. “I will make sure that everything is as you wish.”

“Tell the servants to bring the set of clothes that I’ve prepared for our moon goddess. She will be joining me today.”

“Of course. I will prepare her attire and jewelry immediately.”

She scampered, unable to stop her feelings from being seen.

But he didn’t care.

He didn’t care about anything at all right now.

The doors slammed shut behind her, leaving the two of them with one another once more.

“I abandoned Ishtar.”

Hakuno didn’t dare say a word, opting to watch the king lean forward and loom over her. His eyes narrowed, his hand pulling hers back to his scale covered chest.

“The goddess cannot enter the palace. My servants and guards within the palace were forced to denounce her before me and the others. Her images and her symbols were shattered and melted down. There is absolutely nothing of hers-“

“You love her.”

She couldn’t help but to point it out again.

Gilgamesh wasn’t one to throw away anything he thought of as a treasure. What was his was his and be damned if anything got in his way. There was no way that he would allow-

“Did you miss what I was saying?” Gilgamesh narrowed his gaze, leaning in. “I have abandoned her. She is dead to me.”

“You didn’t kill her, did you?”

He couldn’t kill her, not if she was going to stop the world here from being destroyed. He needed to hold himself back. He had to-

The man laughed, his head leaning back and that golden hair falling around his shoulders a little more as the sound rang out in the room. The red gaze that met her own was so familiar, making her breath catch in her throat.

“Did I kill her? You told me what you wanted. I have done nothing to her, woman. She is alive and breathing for the time being.”

She had told him…

Had she missed something?

There was no thinking about it when he moved her other hand to his chest as well, moving closer to her and letting his Archer-like expression fade.

“Push back what Ishtar has done. I have servants and people to attend to.”

“I don’t know how-“

“You did it before.”

“I don’t remember doing it!” Hakuno shook her head, trying to pull her hands back only to find them held tighter.

“Hakuno,” Gilgamesh growled. “Repair the damage. We have work to do.”

“I don’t know how! I can’t heal what I don’t understa-“

A hand moved towards her neck, releasing her hand to do so. She could feel it running lightly along her skin, causing her breath to catch.

“G-Gil…”

“You are so fearful,” he murmured, leaning in close. “I can smell the fear in you, I can feel it like a lover’s touch. I have never had anyone fear me in the way that you do, like you think I will torment you for all of eternity.”

The scales moved beneath her hands, sending a shiver through her veins.

“Do you fear snakes that much?”

His fingers were flexing a bit, pressing lightly into her skin.

“You shiver whenever you have to touch my scales,” he continued, “and you get stiff like this when I touch you… Either your foresight for my temper is phenomenal or you simply wish to die.”

“I don’t know how to help you,” Hakuno told him again.

“Don’t you want your Gilgamesh?”

Where had this question come from?

She couldn’t move as he closed the space between them a little more. The words were so clever, so upfront, but there was none of the warmth with him still. It wasn’t the same as Archer or Caster.

He wasn’t the same.

“I’m right here. You manage to recede the curse and keep my thinking. You bear the eyes of a god, something you should not have at all.”

His hands moved to her cheeks, cupping her face to look up at him.

“You are a mongrel in the truest sense, yet you make me need you. You’ve made me risk everything in my life since the moment you dropped into my arms.”

“Gilgamesh…”

“Do what you did before,” he demanded once more. “Make the scales go back.”

Why did he have to look like that when he asked?

She could feel her head pounding as she pulled herself together, closing her eyes and forcing her mana to try to do what she had told him she didn’t know how to do. Her throat felt dry. Her chest felt so tight. Her body was crying from the strain of it all, but she couldn’t hold it back.

The king pulled back after a few moments, scales gone.

Her head swam dangerously as her vision blurred slightly.

“You’ve done well, my pet.”

The man stood up, stretching his body and moving to dress. The room was wavering around her, her head throbbing.

“This will allow me to continue my work uninterrupted. Once we are done today, we will summon the clay being back to the ziggurat and I will allow you to do as you wished with the goddess. What happens to her is no concern of mine.”

“I don’t know… what I said I wished…”

Her eyes closed a moment.

Then she opened her eyes to the king leaning over her.

“What is this?”

“Hmm?”

“You’re falling asleep on me. Did you miss what I said?”

Hakuno nodded, beginning to close her eyes only to find him pulling her up into his arms.

“You are useless to me this way. Open your eyes and pay attention to what needs to be done. You need to remain awake while the people see you.”

“I’m so tired,” Hakuno murmured.

“Awaken at once.”

Awaken awaken, he demanded. That was all well and good, but she couldn’t do it. Her stomach was churning and her body was aching. As much as he had whined and complained so far, the best she could do was to lean against him.

Then his hands yanked her hair back.

“I SAID WAKE UP!”

“STOP!”

“DID YOU NOT HEAR ME, MONGREL? DID YOU MISS WHEN I SAID THAT YOU HAVE TO BE-“

Hakuno glanced over at him, tears pricking her eyes and soreness coming to the edges of her vision as the man looked her over. His words died as he set her quietly on her feet.

She found him moving away, pouring something from a pitcher nearby and bringing it over to her.

“What-“

“You are weakening from the abandonment of the gods.”

Her hands wrapped around the goblet, her eyes straying to his face.

“Drink. It will not help, but the audience today will be important. Getting the prayers from the people will help solidify your strength and perhaps stop this never ending night of yours.”

Her eyes drifted to the windows, noting the curtains over them all.

“Drink,” Gilgamesh demanded again.

The dark look in his eyes had her tipping back the glass, the potent alcohol making her face warm and her body cough.

“Drink all of it,” he warned. “If you fall asleep, I’ll see if pain can help awaken you further.”


End file.
